Sister Delaney was one of the medical staff who looked after Elsie Howard when she was hospitalised in 1973. Elsie had caught a train to London to visit her son Dennis. After returning to retrieve her handbag which she had left on a park bench, Elsie was knocked down by a taxi. She suffered a frontal fracture of the skull and severe concussion. Delaney and the younger Nurse Maclean enjoyed speculating about the identity of "sleeping beauty", who had been found without any form of identification.
Though still unconscious, Elsie herself provided the key to establishing her identity by muttering to herself in her sleep in the vicinity of Nurse Maclean. Maclean passed onto Sister Delaney three phrases Elsie had repeated, which Delaney then passed onto WPC Tomlin - "double glazing", "Pentonville", and "Dennis Tanner". Delaney also imparted Maclean's estimation (from her accent) that Elsie was from the north.
Delaney was also on hand when Elsie's husband Alan Howard came down to see her. Alan thought Elsie had come to see Dennis Maxwell and that she might be cheating on him but, having chatted to Elsie, Delaney knew the real reason for her being in London and told Alan that Elsie had bought him an anniversary present - hardly the behaviour of a woman who was playing away.